Table of Contents

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CBS News Monthly Poll #4, October 2008 (ICPSR 26832)

Principal Investigator(s):CBS News

Summary:

This poll, fielded October 29 to November 1, 2008, is a part of a continuing series of monthly surveys that solicit public opinion on the presidency and on a range of other political and social issues. This poll interviewed 1,167 adults nationwide, including 1,040 registered voters. Respondents were asked whether they approved of the way George W. Bush was handling the presidency, whether the country was moving in the right direction, and the condition of the national economy. Registered voters ... (more info)

This poll, fielded October 29 to November 1, 2008, is a part of a continuing series of monthly surveys that solicit public opinion on the presidency and on a range of other political and social issues. This poll interviewed 1,167 adults nationwide, including 1,040 registered voters. Respondents were asked whether they approved of the way George W. Bush was handling the presidency, whether the country was moving in the right direction, and the condition of the national economy. Registered voters were asked how much attention they were paying to the 2008 presidential campaign, whether they had voted in a Democratic or Republican primary or caucus that year, the likelihood that they would vote in the upcoming general election, for whom they would vote, and whether they planned to vote in person on election day, by mail or absentee ballot, or at an early voting location. Those who had already voted were asked which candidate they had voted for. Views were also sought on presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain and vice-presidential candidates Joe Biden and Sarah Palin. Other questions addressed the respondent's financial situation compared to four years ago, how long they had lived at their current residence, whether a person's race affected their chances of getting ahead in today's society, and the Iraq War. Demographic variables include sex, age, race, education level, marital status, household income, perceived social class, political party affiliation, political philosophy, voter registration status and participation history, military service, religious preference, frequency of religious attendance, and whether respondents considered themselves to be a born-again Christian.

Universe:
Persons aged 18 and over living in households with telephones in the United States.

Data Types:
survey data

Data Collection Notes:

The data available for download are not weighted and users will need to weight the data prior to analysis.

The CASEID variable was reformatted in order to make it a unique identifier.

Responses in the variable Q103 (ZIP Code) were blanked to protect respondent confidentiality.

A truncated value label in variable EDUC was corrected.

This data collection was produced by CBS News, New York, NY.

Methodology

Sample:
A variation of random-digit dialing using primary sampling units (PSUs) was employed, consisting of blocks of 100 telephone numbers identical through the eighth digit and stratified by geographic region, area code, and size of place. Phone numbers were dialed from RDD samples of both standard land-lines and cell phones. Within households, respondents were selected using a method developed by Leslie Kish and modified by Charles Backstrom and Gerald Hursh (see Backstrom and Hursh, SURVEY RESEARCH. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1963).

Weight:
The data contain weight variables that should be used in analyzing the data. According to the CBS News Web site, the data were weighted to match United States Census Bureau breakdowns on age, sex, race, education, and region of the country. The data were also adjusted for the fact that people who share a telephone with others have less chance to be contacted than people who live alone and have their own telephones, and that households with more than one telephone number have more chances to be called than households with only one telephone number.

Mode of Data Collection:
telephone interview

Extent of Processing: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of
disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major
statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to
these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection: